Sweet and sour apples

Following our Microsoft and Google successes and failure stories, we’ve heard some of you clamoring for an Apple Successes and Failures list. Since it also happens to be Apple's big week for its WWDC event, we decided now would be a good time to oblige and reflect on Apple's history. Yes, we’re the biggest PC fanboys around, but we can’t deny that Apple has had some financially successful computing devices.

A mini-PC with an orb form factor

For those looking for a round PC experience, hardware manufacturer Zotac International has unveiled the new ZBOX Sphere OI520 Series. The form for this series of mini PCs is in the shape of a sphere and is powered by the Intel Core i5 4200U processor (1.6 GHZ base, 2.6GHz Turbo).

What’s red and faster than Dream Machine? This PC

There’s a little secret in the high-end PC market—few if any of these premium rigs actually have truly unique case enclosures. Instead, most boutique builders start with existing off-the-shelf chassis and customize from there.

\Note: This review was originally featured in the January 2014 issue of the magazine.

A ‘Force’ to be reckoned with

The Gigabyte GTX 780 Ti OC Edition is somewhat like a Maximum PC editor, in that it is powerful and mostly silent. This is the OC Edition we are testing, so it’s in a high state of tune right out of the box, thanks to a colossal “WindForce” cooler that can expel up to 450W of heat—it’s almost overkill on this 250W TDP GPU. Keep in mind we are big fans of overkill, though, particularly when this package costs exactly the same amount of money as the reference board. So, yes, you get all this cooling and overclocking for free.

Note: This review was originally featured in the February 2014 issue of the magazine

Six cutting-edge gaming mice. Which one belongs in your paw?

We tend to think of some PC components as having a longer shelf life than others. A video card gets out of date faster than a motherboard, which gets out of date faster than an optical drive, for instance. Some people think that a mouse falls way down at the bottom of that list, somewhere between a power supply and the screwdriver you use to put the whole thing together, but those people have got it all wrong.

Note: This article was originally featured in the January 2014 issue of the magazine.

ARM and Haswell do battle

You knew x86 Haswell would eventually face off against ARM, but you probably didn’t expect the fight to go down in Google’s thin-client-esque Chrome OS. Yet that’s what we have as we pit HP’s new COS-based lappy against Acer’s second-gen Chromebook. Obviously, at Maximum PC we’re acutely aware of the Chrome OS’s limitations, but that doesn’t stop us from telling you which is the top Chromebook today.

Note: This article was taken from the January 2014 issue of the magazine.

A lot of value in a little package

Looking at Microsoft’s hardware model, you might think that all Windows tablet/laptop hybrids fall into one of two camps: capable-but-pricey, à la the Surface 2 Pro, or the opposite of that, i.e., the ARM-toting, Windows RT–sporting Surface 2. Luckily, not all PC manufacturers see things so black-and-white. Hence we have the Asus Transformer Book T100, which not only offers Intel’s new x86 Bay Trail Atom processor and a full version of Windows 8.1, but is also priced at an affordable $400 for the 64GB model reviewed here ($350 for the 32GB). Shoot, an ARM-based Surface 2 with 64GB of storage costs $550! And that’s with the funky, fuzzy, flat TouchCover keyboard. That makes the T100 a compelling value proposition, to be sure. But we wanted to know how this combination tablet/laptop fares in actual use.

Note: This review was originally featured in the January 2014 issue of the magazine.

New feature dampens the sound of typing

Cooler Master has unveiled the NovaTouch TKL mechanical keyboard an Pax East. Maximum PC’s Jimmy Thang was able to see the new keyboard that features a silicon-based injection around the mechanical key switches.

A Mouse with a 12,000DPI sensor

If you have been looking for a mouse that will let you shoot the wings off of a fly, then Logitech’s G502 Proteus Core gaming mouse might be the one for you. Maximum PC’s Jimmy Thang got to see the Proteus Core, which features a 12,000DPI sensor, up close and personal at PAX East.